Playboy Cultivator in the Apocalypse

The atmosphere around Skaller Pond became cloudy at sunset, giving an unnatural eeriness to the area as hues of purple and orange reflected against the fog.

Water from the pond slowly pulled into the air and turned to crystals before swirling in an unnatural breeze, creating a vortex.

Kaze watched Evalyn cultivate with a nostalgic smile. He had accepted the death of the woman she once was and the life of the one before him.

Evalyn didn't need to create ice when cultivating. However, the Elemental Qi intake was higher, and the body tempering had profound benefits. As a result, the old Evalyn sky almost exclusively used it when it didn't give away her position.

An hour and a half passed before she snapped out of her trance. Her body shivered due to the cold, and she looked around. Kaze was watching her with a gentle smile.

They locked eyes for a moment before he snapped his fingers.

"Ah, yes." Kaze chuckled while waving his hands.

The atmosphere heated up instantly, and the frost she didn't notice on her body melted, drenching her clothing.

"Let's get started." He said while standing up.

Evalyn nodded hesitantly and stood, looking toward the trees opposite of him.

"Step one. Visualize the cultivation blueprint in your mind." He instructed.

"Then use your imagination to design a blade. The more refined the mental image is, the stronger your technique will be."

She blinked twice. "The technique didn't say that I had to do that."

"It didn't tell you to?" Kaze scoffed, "What do you think cultivation is? A video game where you acquire prebuilt skills?"

Evalyn turned away in shame. "I don't know."

"That's why you should just do what I said." He scoff-laughed breathlessly, "Look."

She turned back to him and watched in a trance as he developed a sword out of a thin area, followed by a spear, and ended with a modern combat knife.

"Your technique isn't designed to create objects." Kaze said, "Most ice techniques do that. Frosted Blades makes the ice sharp and durable so it can be used as a real blade, and allows you to swing the blades in the air.."

Evalyn's heart thumped with excitement.

"As you can see, I made a combat knife from the Mortal Plane." He continued, "For now, focus on blades you've seen so that your imagination doesn't have to create the object."

She took a deep breath and summoned the blueprint. White air swirled above her hand until it formed an object.

Evalyn opened her eyes and looked at it in excitement, then looked up to see Kaze giving her a mocking smile. "What?"

"Are you going to kill your enemies with a pocket knife?" Kaze asked with a mocking smile.

She created a realistic blade on her first try, but it was a three-inch pocket knife for daily practical use.

Evalyn huffed and turned away. "You told me to create something that I've seen."

The emperor smiled, and his eyes glided to the left. "I suppose I did say that, didn't I?"

She turned to him with an annoyed glare.

"Very well, make this then." Kaze chuckled while summoning a basic combat dagger and handing it to her.

Evalyn couldn't feel the cold on her hand, so she gripped it and noticed how sturdy it felt.

She examined it closely, taking all details into account, before she closed her eyes and summoned another object.

A new blade materialized in her hand. While it looked the same, the weights were different, and the sharpness wasn't comparable. The comparison made her frown.

"Come now." Kaze chuckled, "You have centuries to master the technique. For now, resummon the cultivation blueprint in your mind and have your blade hover."

Evalyn nodded with a determined expression. The blade levitated a few inches, making the blonde extremely excited. However, the moment she got excited, the blade went haywire, awkwardly fumbling in the air.

"Take a deep breath and concentrate." He laughed, "Feel the Qi in your environment and then create a mental image of how you want it to move."

She tried for five minutes but couldn't make it do more than levitate and move around a little bit.

"Here, try this." Kaze said with a mysterious smile while summoning a replica of [her] shoddy blade.

He dropped it into the area, letting it levitate, and then he used his finger to draw an eight. The blade's tip stayed fixed in Evalyn's direction but moved in a figure-eight motion.

"Stabilize it in place and then guide it with your finger. That allows you to visualize it naturally." Kaze suggested.

Evalyn watched everything in a trance before looking down at her floating blade. She stared at it while putting down Kaze's blade and then used her mind to stabilize it.

After it was fixed, she began guiding it with her finger. To her amazement, it followed her finger.

Lost in fascination, she began gliding her hand through the air, allowing her ice creation to ebb and flow to her will. The motion increased her understanding and feeling for Qi in the atmosphere, and she began dancing around to increase its full range of motion.

Kaze gave the woman a gentle smile, enjoying it. He hadn't seen Evalyn look that free and expressive until long after he originally met her.

Evalyn Skye, the Ice Pheonix. She didn't thaw for anyone for centuries; he only gazed upon her true form in their later years together.

Yet had got to witness her inner self without barriers pre-apocalypse. For a moment, the old Evalyn Skye transposed over the present, gracefully guiding her younger form in the dance.

Evalyn stopped dancing and looked at his nostalgic gaze. "Am I not doing it right?"

Kaze snapped out of his emotional state.

"You're doing it perfectly." He replied with a slight smile, "Now increase the distance between you and the blade. Once you get a feeling for it, increase and decrease the distance."

Her eyes sparkled after his affirmation, and she continued, allowing the blade to move closer and farther from her. The motion wasn't combat-ready, but her talent showed, given she had never practiced it.

The practice continued until dark. Evalyn was exhausted, and Kaze picked her up in a princess carry.

"W-What are you doing?" She cried.

"Taking you home. Right now, you're focusing on mental strength, so save your strength." He chuckled.

"But I can still—KAZE!" Evalyn screamed as she felt her center of gravity shift. She looked to the side and saw dark outlines of trees pass by her face at a rate that would kill a mortal if they crashed.

She screamed and then hugged him, burying her face in his chest.

"I wouldn't recommend that you ever look away in a life threatening situation." Kaze chuckled as he jumped over a major boulder at 20 miles an hour, shifting through trees effortlessly.

"L-Life threatening!?" Evalyn cried.

"Oh, love. Everything is life threatening if you're not playing attention." He laughed as he continued moving.

After five gruesome minutes, Evalyn felt her body fall as she called a shuttle. The blonde looked mildly traumatized, but he ignored her completely.

It took her an hour and a half to get to the top of the mountain using her athletic build and the excessive strength gained from her cultivation.

Yet he made it to the bottom with her in his arms in five minutes! Her fear melted into fascination the more she thought about it.

Fifteen minutes later, the shuttle came to pick them up, and they glided to his house, where he exited alone.

"Meet me there tomorrow morning at 7 am. We're skipping class." Kaze ordered with a hypnotic voice.

"Okay… wait. If we're doing this in the morning, can I…." Evalyn whispered.

"No-pe~" He smacked, "If you want me to aid you with sexual relief, you can practice your mental image training at the same time."

Evalyn's eyes filled with murderous rage when she connected his statement and magnetic smile. However, she scoffed and admitted it was charming. "Tomorrow, then. Jerk."

"I love you too." Kaze chuckled while walking away.

She could only watch his back with a complex expression, trying to decipher the level of truth hidden within his joke.